Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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Welcome, Announcements, Joys, and Concerns
Passing of the Peace
We are marching in the light of God, we are marching in the light of God (x2)
We are marching, marching, we are marching Oh!
We are marching in the light of God.
(x2)
Leader: Arise, shine, for your light has come
All: The glory of the LORD rises upon you.
Leader: Let us praise the Lord together
All: The sun shall no longer be our light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on us.
Leader: For the Lord will be our light.
All: And our God will be our glory.
What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet while shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing; Haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary.
Why lies he in such mean estate where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian, fear; for sinners here the silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear, shall pierce him through; the cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail, the Word made flesh, the babe, the son of Mary.
So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh; come one and all, to own him.
The King of kings salvation brings; let loving hearts enthrone him.
Raise, raise the song on high.
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy, for Christ is born, the babe, the son of Mary.
God of the Bethlehem star, everyone is searching for your light shining in the face of Christ.
The Magi sought Christ simply to worship him.
But Herod sought him to appease his jealous anger.
We confess that our motives in seeking Jesus are not pure.
We do not come simply to worship: we come to Christ, asking his benefits of reassurance, health, wealth, asking him to fulfill the hundred petitions for not-so-important requests that we heap before him.
But the Magi sought first the kingdom.
Help us, God, to follow their example, putting our own need in perspective, worshiping the Christ in love, content to be in your presence, and laying our gifts before you.
Then may we journey, trusting that your goodness and light will accompany us all the days of our life.
Amen
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be: world without end.
Amen, Amen.
Star Words
What is your “star word” for this year?
New Year’s reso. . .
never mind.
Put the list of New Year’s resolutions on the ground and step away slowly with your hands in the air!
Seriously.
If you are the rare sort of person who took up new year’s resolutions on January 1, 2019 and today, January 5, 2020, you are still keeping them up - I’d like to hire you to lead a seminar.
That’s not normal.
What’s normal is making a list of really ambitious (applaudable, for sure, but too ambitious) goals that aren’t really going to happen.
When I was talking to someone this morning about resolutions, he said his only resolution this year was to not make any.
Well done!
You’re honestly better off not making any new years resolutions than you are making ones you can’t follow through on.
When I talk to people one on one about goals, I talk about the S. M. A. R. T. process for setting goals.
So let’s say one of your New Year’s Resolutions is “Get closer to God”.
You ask yourself, is the goal:
Specific?
No.
Not even close.
You have no definition of “close to God”.
And even if you did, how much closer?
So maybe focus on one discipline.
Reading the Bible.
That’s more specific.
Measurable?
You can measure how much scripture you’re reading each day.
You’ll need to figure out a way of tracking it like a calendar or an app, but that’s measurable.
And you’ll have to decide how much you’re reading to be able to measure if you’re accomplishing it or not.
Attainable?
Depends.
Did you decide to spend 2 hours a day reading the Bible?
For most of us, that’s totally unattainable.
And if you don’t already have a habit of reading at all, maybe try starting with 10 or 15 minutes a day.
Relevant?
Does it matter?
We’re going to go with “yes” for this one.
Timely?
Do you have a time frame for it?
When do you want to achieve it by?
How long before you reassess?
So, looking at those questions, you might have gone from “Get closer to God” to “Read the Bible for 10-15 minutes every day for the year.”
or “Read the Bible in a year this year.”
The problem is that most of our lists of resolutions look like:
Eat better
Get closer to God
Be nicer to people
And even with our star words, I encourage you not to just go, “Cool.
I got _____.
I’ll be more ______ this year.”
What are some specific, manageable, attainable, relevant, and timely ways you can explore that word and build it into your life?
Sure: vague goals with no time frames or accountability are way easier to think about because they are very theoretical.
They rarely involve doing any actual work.
We don’t have to think about them and we don’t have to face reality when we don’t actually achieve them.
We just say we tried, we don’t know why we still have terrible sleep habits or diet or spiritual life or personal relationships.
We tried, after all.
We tend to do that as communities too.
In Matthew, we read the familiar story of the “wise men” or Magi.
These three symbolize God’s kingdom being taken out into all the world.
Suddenly, Jesus is revealed to the entire earth.
It’s like the world’s big “aha” moment.
But sometimes when we get a big “aha” or a reason to change or better ourselves or the world, we just sort of charge out without real direction.
OR we get overwhelmed by how big it is and shut down by February 9th and give up.
When we don’t do it with purpose like the Magi following a specific star, we’re going to get lost.
In Ephesians, the author is writing to a new church at a time when Christianity is fresh and new like the new year.
And they have taken the direction to go and make disciples, but they really need some SMART goals and direction.
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